The TRiaNGLe
by GhostMist
Summary: Within the background of the classical world of Hogwarts created by JK.Rowling this story revolves around the binding power of friendship,the purity of trust,the strength of faith and the crucial tolerance in tense times amoung four unforgettable friends
1. Two best friends and a girlfriend

"Here, let me help you," Gaby bent on her knees to pick up a book, and tried organizing the layers of parchment and scrap. As they tried to sort his belongings in a hurry, Gaby's hand fell unintentionally across a small card; the cover was decorated with an elaborate beating heart with the woods flashing in colours: Camry Smith, Will You Be My Valentine? From Kara"  
  
"What's this?" But before she could get an answer the card disappeared from her fingers as Smith shoved it into his bag with the last of his books. "Just a card," he mumbled, swinging the bag over his shoulder.  
  
They both got up at the same time and were looking pointlessly at one another when Gaby remembered, "Aren't you," she said pointing vaguely to the door," supposed to go to class now?"  
  
"Oh- yeah...well, see you." He turned and left Gaby in the middle of the empty classroom, wondering who in the world Kara was?  
  
After Potions, Gaby went straight upstairs to take a cold shower from head to foot which she thought would help cool off the effects of Snape's seething remarks on her best effort of the month. She came bounding down the steps to the Entrance Hall, hair flailing, Potions homework in hand when she looked up and saw something that made her skip the last step and end up staring silently from the bottom.  
  
Smith was standing by the solid oak doors talking to a girl in the same year, who Gaby did not know. He looked up, spotted Gaby and beckoned her over without needing to mouth words or move his hands the slightest. Gaby found her feet and went quickly over to them. The girl turned, curly blond hair falling over her shoulders and when she caught sight of Gaby her misty blue eyes swelled and her glossy lips formed into a loud Oh! of surprise. "You must be Gabrielle, Camry has been telling me so mush about you...most he ever talks about actually," she giggled and spared a quick glance at him.  
  
'Funny, he never mentioned a thing about you...' Gaby tried to say but instead she removed her right hand away from the books to shake the girl's hand.  
  
"Gaby this is-"  
  
"Kara, I know," Gaby completed with a smile.  
  
"Oh, wow, it's interesting how two best friends could know so much about each other to finish the other's sentences."  
  
"Happens all the time," Gaby and Smith said together.  
  
"Well, Camry and I were heading of to the grounds together." And to both Gaby and Smith's surprise, she reared up and kissed him lightly on the cheek.  
  
"He is such a sweetheart..."  
  
Gaby found her mouth opened and said quickly, "Well- have fun together..."  
  
Kara placed her arm around his and they went down the stairs and Gaby, disbelieving, walked toward the Great Hall instead.  
  
"Hey Snape just moved the due date on our last essay to Wednesday," Vanessa told her the moment she sat down at her side.  
  
"Ugh...the Remedial Ranks for balding white rats?"  
  
"More like...Poisoning Fumes for the Potions Prat." muttered Jade, spreading a generous helping of marmalade on her biscuit, Vanessa chuckled. Gaby didn't even bother to tell them off; she simply rolled her eyes and sighed.  
  
"What's wrong with you?" Vanessa asked beside her.  
  
"Nothing's wrong with m-"  
  
"Yeh- because there's food in front of you and you're not eating it- now cough it up!"  
  
"Is nothin' really..." Gaby piled food onto her empty plate just to stare at it in the end but before she could be asked again, she answered- "Camry's got a girlfriend."  
  
Vanessa choked and her pumpkin juice went slopping down her front, and the mashed potatoes on jade's fork, halfway to her mouth, fell with a splat onto her lap.  
  
"Camry Smith? Our Smith- the Smith we know?"  
  
"No- Camry Smith the house-elf!" Gaby retorted sarcastically.  
  
They didn't say anything for a while until Vanessa took another swig at her goblet.  
  
"Ah well...good for him isn't it?"  
  
"Yeah...I mean yes!" It cool," said Gaby airily, shoving peas into her mouth and swallowing them whole. She had just seen the way his eyes flickered when Kara kissed him, the way she looked like an angel bathed in golden afternoon sunlight, the way she walked arm in arm with him across the grounds and how he walked stiffly beside her that Gaby hardly realized that she was punching a hole in the pear in front of her with a fork.  
  
"This is stupid," she placed tha fork down on the table (several crystal goblets nearly chinked).  
  
"What? I think they're good," said Jade, taking a spoonful of her own pear.  
  
"No-no, I mean about Camry...I should be happy for him- I am!" He's gone and found someone that can make him happy and I'm glad for that..."  
  
"If you want to be," said Jade cautiously. But Gaby felt better once she said that.  
  
"She called him Camry... nobody else calls him Camry besides well, me..."  
  
Vanessa, tut-tutting, placed a hand on Gaby's shoulder and swung her leg over the bench. "Nobody calls his name the way you do- Well I'm off to do Prat's homework."  
  
Jade was rising on Gaby's other side. "Yeah...me too, bye..."  
  
"Yeah..." said Gaby, chewing a bit harder on her peas than she meant to, "Bye..." 


	2. The Confession

That evening Gaby chose a deserted classroom instead of the Common Room to finish her Charms homework, to be away from it all was what she really needed. Finally satisfied with her best result on the Theory of flying objects, she looked dismayed at her ward. After fruitless trials of lifting a feather into thin air, Gaby gave up hope. Once, for a fleeting split- second, the feather lifted and her heart beat so fast at finally getting it then she realized it was a gust of wind from the open window as the feather flew straight off the table on its own accord. She needed Smith but where was he now? He did not return from the grounds yet, at least she did not think so.  
  
Shoving the wand finally into her bag, she swung it over her shoulder and walked right into the door that swung open. The person entered, his face fell in the dim torchlight as he saw it appeared empty then Gaby, massaging her forehead, emerged from behind.  
  
"Hey."  
  
He jumped.  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Well, I thought I'd...well- you going?"  
  
"Just getting up, how was your date with Kara?" Gaby tried hard to sound off-handish and cheery.  
  
"Ah...well, allright really..."  
  
"Where is she?" Gaby asked when he did not look at her.  
  
"She came down with the flu all of a sudden...think I gave it to her, thought it was gone..."  
  
Gaby shook her head from thinking of ways she could have got it.  
  
"She's very pretty."  
  
"Yeah," he raised his eyebrows slightly and sighed at the same time.  
  
There was an awkward pause after a while and as Gaby tuned to go through the door-  
  
"I really don't like her, you know."  
  
She froze, "What do you mean? You're perfect for each other..."  
  
"You're just saying that," came the sullen answer.  
  
His robes were pushed back and his hands were in his pockets again, the light from the brackets cast such a lovely glow on his solitary figure that her heart melted.  
  
"What's wrong?" she asked him softly.  
  
"She's real nice and all- but...I dunno," he shrugged half-heartedly.  
  
"Give her a chance- I mean you'll never know."  
  
Smith rose his eyes to look at her so suddenly at her she felt her heart jolt painfully and looked away.  
  
"You really think so?" and there was a hint of hope in his low soft voice and Gaby knew she had done something right.  
  
"Yeah...yeah, I think so," she said convincingly.  
  
"OK," he said, a shadow of his old devilish smile lengthening across his brightening face.  
  
"Let's go then? Heard Prats' report is due Wednesday.  
  
"Ha-ha...you've been listening to the three of us way too much."  
  
Next evening, after the drousiness of History of Magic class wore off the three witches were to be found sitting around the fire trying to finish the Potions homework from Snape.  
  
"There...done," Gaby said. "How's that for five feet long..." she said, putting it aside of her working area then scrambling it again for a final spell-check.  
  
When she was satisfied that everything was all right, she attempted Transfiguration.  
  
"Good, lemme copy," said Vanessa quickly and when Gaby opened her mouth to caution Vanessa on would-be errors she blocked her.  
  
"You know something?...You try too much."  
  
Gaby was taken aback. "I dunno what you mean..."  
  
"I mean," she took a breath, "that when you know you're on top you do everything in your will to stay there..."  
  
"Still don' understand where you're comin' from."  
  
"You can't stand being beat," said Jade suddenly, looking at Gaby's homework too to avoid eye-contact.  
  
"Yeah, you can't stand comin' in second best," Vanessa continued upstream.  
  
"No one would..."  
  
They both rose their brows to look at her. "Sorry!" she said quickly, "but- but I'm not always best at everything- and what does thins have to do with me?"  
  
Vanessa took the game, "we mean that...since someone else is in the running for Smith you feel you've lost-"  
  
"What?" I was never "in the running" for anybody in the first place and I'm happy for him!" she finished though gritted teeth.  
  
"We know that," said Jade, "it's just that we understand how you feel...even if we don't know what you're feeling..."  
  
"Thanks..." Gaby said, smiling appreciatively at them. "Thas good to know," and she felt better.  
  
"Gaby?"  
  
"Hm..."  
  
"You wrote Professor Prat instead of Snape..."  
  
And Gaby scrambled he roll to correct the mistake, they wondered that sour look on Snape's face if he would have seen it. 


	3. Snape's Foul

The fifth years had to submit their five-foot long Potions essay on Remedial Ranks for balding white rats on the Thursday afternoon, during Double Potions.  
  
Snape was livid and excessively destructive to Gryffindor point standing when they had to perform the practical of the essay within the final forty minutes of the class. Vanessa's Potion, instead of replacing a lush white coat to the rats' wrinkly pink skin, turned them into greying haggard instead...Jade was doing reasonably well until it came to taking the sample vial up to the teacher's desk...she tripped and sent the substance streaming down Snape's face causing a swift deduction of fifteen points as white whickers sprouted down the side of his head, he looked sickly part human...  
  
Gaby submitted her Potion that was off-colour, off-smell and had 'converted the expert teaching and hard work of the teacher into complete incompetence and stupidity of the student' according to the half-rat prat.  
  
That night they went to bed with swollen brains screwing up in either thoughts of revenge on the git of a teacher or remedial potions itself to upgrade all the damage they caused to their House's points in one afternoon...  
  
The next morning sufficiently made up for their crisis in Greenhouse Four. Smith stepped up and easy fifty by answering every one of Sprout's "I-don't- think-you'll-be-able-to-know-this" questions during the course of the morning's exercise. Highly proud of her friend, Gaby grinned at him while gathering her books at the end of the lesson, and he mouthed back "Anytime."  
  
On emerging from Greenhouse Four, Smith pulled her aside to talk to her. It looked urgent.  
  
"I just wanted you to know that...now that Kara and I are- well...you know, nothing is gonna happen between us- you and me- I mean we'll still remain friends, right?"  
  
Gaby, who had been staring patiently up into his steel green eyes as he spoke said monotonously: "No." And he was shocked. "You've broken our friendship, Camry- and you have the nerve to tell me this! I thought we had something special..."  
  
He chocked and Gaby could not take it anymore. Her face burst with laughter and she punched him jovially on the arm, still in hysterics.  
  
"Don't do that," he said, gritting his teeth though smiling at the same time- "look, you got Lima beans in you hair..." Smith was carefully extracting the few small sticky green seeds from the top of her head when a friendly loud voice floated across the grounds and carried to the tree they were standing under- Smith's hand froze just above Gaby's head and his expression became rigid; she identified from this reaction who had called and turned around to see none other than Kara trotting toward them- her curly golden strands of hair tied halfway back, her book in her arms.  
  
"There you are..." she said catching her breath."I was looking for you- Oh, hi Gabrielle."  
  
"Please- c-call me Gaby," she told her nicely when Smith's jaw remained fixed and stalled again so he could loosen it.  
  
"Er...what are you doing?"  
  
"Oh- he was just teaching me how to block the eyes- stun...charm...anyway- how's your flu?"  
  
"All cleared," Kara said, taking in the outdoors with a clear breath and grinning at Smith. "Madam Pomfery cleared it up within a day- You ready?" she asked him eagerly, her big bright blue eyes hinting.  
  
"What- oh! Your Charms homework..." he said, heading off with her, "See you Gabs."  
  
"He's really good," said Kara quickly, turning around to smile at her.  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
Then Gaby saw Smith turn back inconspicuously to look at her with a hint of reminding and she nodden a reply and suddenly remembered she had not done her own Charm practice for the test today, she wanted to call at them but stopped for some reason even though she could have. The two of them headed up the stone steps back to the castle and were gone.  
  
"Yeah,' muttered Gaby, "real good..."  
  
Frustrated (and this would only hinder her desperate situation more) Gaby went through all last resorts including tagging Vanessa and Jade in the flow of students forming after break to hiss at them that she wasn't prepared, the outcome was unexpected.  
  
"Well, I guess I'm OK with that, "Jade started, "I'm rather good at them by now and I could handle them in Flitwicks Test...Besides, I don't think he takes points off for burning your first few objects...just looks at the average state of the final one..."  
  
"I could practically do them if you jumped me outta my sleep at one in the morning," Vanessa contributed, "for the past two days I have done nothing but eat- sleep and "you-know-what-else" the Manipulation Charm..."  
  
By now Gaby felt somewhat stupid, she was the only one entering the charms classroom looking extremely nervous and stressed out, not that this happened all the time, it was just one of her weak subjects.  
  
"Guys, what am I going to do?" she hissed at them as they took their positions at the back of the classroom, hoping he would start with the front.  
  
"Just do like you always do, "Jade put it simply, "do your stuff..."  
  
"How do I know what stuff to do if I don't have any stuff to do?"  
  
But her protests were drowned by the remaining students bustling into the classroom and the scraping of chairs as they took their positions, faces fixed and sitting with erect confidence. Gaby was about to lose her head.  
  
Flitwick suddenly popped up from behind his desk and greeted them with an anxious squeak...which was made more profound by the cause of this event to witness his hard work in action today...how badly Gaby was going to disappoint him, he had put so much faith in her Charmwork during the week that she promised secretly she'd do better, but never felt the chance. It was too late now.  
  
Everyone took out their wands and Gaby followed suit, her blood boiling and she was beginning to break a sweat under her robes in the cool classroom. Feeling the impulse, she pushed her quill off the desk and disappeared beneath the top in search for it, purposely taking her time pretending the search for the thing right under her nose before resurfacing.  
  
"Ah! Miss Flame...we'll start with you then..."  
  
"OW!" Gaby rubbed the top of her head; she had jumped at the sound of her name. How in the world did that happen?  
  
She emerged to see both Vanessa and Jade looking directly at her and made a mental note to reward their giveaway. Gaby strode up to the front of the class, eyes pressed in on her back as she passed rows of tables, her wand limp at her side. Not only was her head completely blank now, it was aching.  
  
Gaby wished her teacher would stop smiling pleasantly at her and disappear behind his podium just as he had come and they didn't have to worry about the test for now...but so many of them had come prepared...  
  
"Now, now young lady, chin up, show some dignity..."  
  
Gaby mustered the last bit of endurance she had, and stared pointlessly at the four long pieces of licorice on the table in front of her and stared at the phrase on the card she was going to establish. Since when did candy scare her so she never could remember! Smith was sitting in the first row, next to Kara, who was also joining the eyes of the class to the person in front of Fliskwick's podium. Smith suddenly gripped the edges of the table as if just remembering something and fixed Gaby with an impenetrable stare. She showed him it was allright since it wasn't his fault he was busy, and held her wand at ready. Muttering the incantation, with actual concentration, she aimed it at the first licorice strip...it hurt her head to bend it and by the time she got the first word into shape, she was exhausted. She formed the second almost effortlessly as it consisted only of two letters but the third one chose to spring flat out across the table top while forming the last curve of the "e", lashing out threateningly at the others, that quivered slightly before her very cold hand. The class gasped surprisingly, and the sense of feeling the majority with her, with her errors and knowing her pain, eased the last trace of nervousness from the back of her mind. She noticed that if the candy twisted a bit, it would from easier, and now she was sure she was done.  
  
|WECLONE AT HOGSWARE | | |  
  
"Very nice Miss Flame but do you approve-"  
  
But Gaby was already mid-way in the process of horrid correction.  
  
|WECLOME TO HOGWARTS | | |  
  
And then she turned to grin at her teacher, wand in her folded hands in front of her. The class broke into laughter. Not bad for a first timer she thought. "Allright Miss Flame," Flitwick squeaked, observing the reaction of his class and the finished effort. "You may sit down."  
  
"Class Charmer," Vanessa muttered at her teasingly as she sat down.  
  
"Told ya," said Jade. And they were right; she did have nothing to worry about.  
  
It was easier watching from this perspective; and funny that Flitwick had called up Smith soon after, he faced the table, effortlessly administering the magic as if he was merely writing his name on a vertical piece of parchment and eventually putting her to shame. Gaby grinned at him as he was reading it over-  
  
"Oh!" he whispered, grinning too, catching the hint and switched it around the other way so the class could see what he wrote, there was a loud "Aaaahhhhhh," as they observed his work and Flitwick bounced on the balls of his feet.  
  
|QUIDDITCH CHAMPIONSHIPS| | | | |  
  
This suited him perfectly.  
  
"A common mistake!" (Gaby's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach) "But excellent..."  
  
He passed her a jovial look on his way back to his seat, before turning around and sitting down next to Kara, who (from what Gaby could see from behind) was congratulating him in an outburst of quiet phrases.  
  
"This isn't mine!" Gaby choked at Vanessa and jade on either side of her, on the final double Potions class of the week. She was holding her five- feet long Potions essay in her hands and staring at her name at the head to the:  
  
|(A| |) |  
  
Right next to it.  
  
"Of course it's yours," said Jade, matter-of-factly. She was sporting a "c" while Vanessa bit her lip over a large red "C", too. Gaby felt her insides drop.  
  
"He's giving back the samples today!" Jade whispered. And sure enough, as she spoke, three labeled vials clunked on their table top and Snape's whirling cloak past them in sullen silence. After the distribution (Gaby was still staring at her vial apprehensively), Snape leaned over on his desk.  
  
"I want you to take that back- I have nothing more to do with them," he said silkily. "As I had said..." he flicked a glance at Gaby's table."I would grant ten points each for everyone who had A's in my class..."  
  
His eyes flickered; peering over Gaby saw an "A" on Smith's Potions paper in front of him. She felt happy and proud.  
  
"However," they both looked up the stare at the teacher, "certain major mishaps have to be taken into account." He flicked his wand to the board and the names of the students in the class materialized on the black, alongside each score in accordance. Gaby received a "C" in her Practical along with Vanessa, Jade and Smith.  
  
"C is a failure!" he said dangerously, "no one in my class is going to pass with just a "C"! Which proves all the lower scorers complete imbeciles!" he stopped pacing the front of his desk. "Most of which came from Gryffindor, therefore it is logical enough to allocate ten points to each Slytherin until the others know-what-they-are-doing-in-my-class!"  
  
Gaby felt like tearing Snape up into extremely tiny bits and pieces. Smith flicked around in his seat to look aghast at her, she merely shrugged.  
  
"Today we will be doing a proper potion in the event that your hair replenisher must be in by Friday, "Snape said softly."Get into your pairs."  
  
But just as Gaby was about to revert her station to the table in front of hers, Smith's table (Kara moved over to partner Harley) Snape, within a second, rounded on her extending a long arm to block her passage.  
  
"How about..." his yellow eyes skittered around the heads of the students, "you partner someone else for a change," then his discoloured teeth split into an unmistakable leering sneer, "Mr. Prince Malfoy."  
  
Trying as best to remain neutral about this sudden chance in plans, Gaby headed over to Prince's table instead (Vanessa gasped behind her and Smith's jaw dropped).  
  
"Smith! Work with Donald."  
  
Gaby felt totally out of place at the Slytherin side of the classroom, where leering faces surrounded her with ugly teasing and chuckles. Snape placed the instructions on the board with a wave of his wand. "I expect this to be done by the end of the period, Malfoy's in charge," then he swept out of the classroom, slamming the door behind him.  
  
"This is going to be fun, "Prince muttered beside her and Gaby lowered her head to slice up stewed lizards tails a bit faster than she meant to."Since I'm in charge, you get to do all the work..." And from the insides of his robes, Prince extricated The Handbook on Unsightly Quidditch Fouls, leaned back in his bench and lengthened his legs across the table top right next to where Gaby was working, her anger now burning more than the fire beneath the cauldron as she tried to avoid Vanessa's eyes. She knew she would burst. She cast her eyes to the blackboard for the next instruction.  
  
[5] Heat for about one minute, then apply Pelican Powder...  
  
And looking over the table she saw it disappear underneath Prince's shoes. "Prince, could you kindly let me get to the powder?"  
  
No response.  
  
"Prince? I would like to get some of the powder you have under your shoe..."  
  
Prince turned a page. Gaby's hand stiffened at the pocket of her robes. Smith, Vanessa and Jade were watching, she had twenty seconds more before the Potion could go terribly wrong.  
  
"Prince Malfoy, could you give me the Pelican Powder, please?" her voice now shaking as she saw a smile curl around the corners of his lips, he was clearly enjoying this.  
  
"What are you going to do about it?" And as she made a grab for it, his foot thrust forward and the vial of powder fell with a chink to the floor. There was a scraping of chair legs but Gaby held up a hand over to the Gryffindor section as she bent down to retrieve it.  
  
"Reparo!" The pieces fused together again, the powder scattered. She tried her best hastily with a collectable charm and rose again just in time to apply it to the potion before it frothed over the rim, it turned a green solution, exactly as the instructions stated, she was done.  
  
Prince was suddenly up on his feet, handbook cast aside. "You know you're not supposed to use wands in this class for that."  
  
Gaby was leveling the sample into a vial. "What are you going to do about it?"  
  
In a roar of fury Prince was at her. Vial and wand crashed to the floor as she wretched his arms away from her shoulders as he made to shove her hard against the wall- She doubled back- Slyherins scampered out of the way.  
  
"You dare to touch Royalty!" Prince seethed, advancing again.  
  
The chair she heard before was suddenly thrown aside in a wave of fury as her best friend bounded forward- Jade and Vanessa screamed- and like clockwork, as if Prince knew this would happen- he pointed his wand straight at the unarmed Gaby as his accomplice Donald, did the same to Kara, who shrieked with surprise.  
  
Gaby looked at the wand tip right before her eyes, poised and ready to strike, to the satisfied sneer lingered on Prince's pale face, to the frozen figure of Smith right behind him. He looked from Malfoy's back to Kara- Gaby expected him to do something, anything, she didn't even care if he blasted Donald off his feet instead. Go on! She willed him to look at her, help her you idiot! I can take care of myself! But he merely lowered his wand as Prince glanced at his form from the corner of his eye. He tut- tutted. A whole minute passed and wands were still held at bay, Gaby held her breath.  
  
Then Prince turned, his wand at his side as Donald went back to his seat-  
  
"TARANTALLEGRA!"  
  
Prince's sudden spell hit the wall behind her as Gaby ducked, and ricocheted of to impact the nearest cauldron, which cracked, boiling green liquid seeped to the floor, burning holes into benches abandoned by Slytherins.  
  
"What's going on here?" Snape has just re-entered, looking uglier than ever.  
  
"Flame went mad and exploded this cauldron Professor...I was trying to clean it up when Smith there- he tried to hex me behind my back!"  
  
The Gryffindors broke into a wave of protests.  
  
"SILENCE!" he yelled, then continued in a dangerous whisper that nevertheless carried over the heads of the class, "This will be dealt with accordingly- Malfoy, get these students out of here- you two!"  
  
He rounded on Smith and Gaby and seized them by the forearms, dragging them out of the classroom, Gaby trotted to keep up with her teacher's furious pace lest her arm be detached from her body.  
  
"I should have known you were unable to handle this!" he seethed, and slammed the door into the faces of the protesting Grffindors behind him who had all burst into a frenzy of insults the moment he took captive of the two students.  
  
One minute later, they were hurled into Snape's office, surrounded by ugly things, such as himself, swimming in jars on shelves lining the walls.  
  
"Do you care to tell me what went on in there?" he half-shouted.  
  
Gaby's tongue remained lodged inside her mouth and she knew Smith was battling the same impulse of useless defense.  
  
"Speak! They jumped but said nothing.  
  
"Every student is allowed a right to defense, now take it or leave it!" he spat in their faces. They chose not to, not now. There was a moment of stiff silence, in which the pair of accusing yellow eyes looked from face to face, and Gaby and Smith stared back at them, defiant and non- protesting. Gaby knew what he was trying to do, and did not let him.  
  
"I will find out!" he shouted, slamming the door behind him. Gaby's hand went to her other arm, where Snape left an impression in her skin. "Are you allright?" Smith asked her.  
  
"It's...not...fair!" her voice trembled, "It's just not fair!"  
  
"Nothing can be fair at times," he said so sullenly that Gaby looked up at him, suddenly remembering what he did previously in class.  
  
"How did your Potion turn out?" she asked him, casting around for something diversional, it was his turn to look at her, but he merely smiled and said, "Perfect." Gaby grinned. "If it wasn't for that git Donald I would have never figured it out, he kept correcting me...and I felt like shoving my wand up his -" 


	4. Peers

"BAM!" The door opened, bounced back off the wall, admitting their furious Head Teacher followed by Snape in much higher spirits than before.  
  
"What is the meaning of this?" McGonagall asked them shrewdly, "and hurry up, Professor Snape summoned me out of class to listen to you."  
  
Speaking of whom, Snape leaned casually across his desk, arms folded, expression gratified...it irked Gaby, but she remained in full attention to her Head. "We had a situation in class," she stopped, passed a glance at Snape sneering and then looked back at McGonagal.  
  
"Well? What is it then?"  
  
"We've been wrongfully accused, "she was now looking at Snape a little apprehensively.  
  
"Oh...do continue," McGonagall snapped, but with a hint of interest on her felloe peer's part. Gaby continued to look at Snape and when she thought it would be of no use, McGonagall turned to do the same. "Professor, do you mind excusing us for a while, if it pleases you?"  
  
"It most certainly doesn't," said Snape, the smiling disappearing off his livid face to be replaced by a look of resentment. "This is my office, they committed crime in my classroom, I'm here to see then admit the truth!" he finished in a defiant whisper.  
  
"Severus," McGonagall said lazily, "with all respect due to you...I hardly think you know anything- of the truth I mean, concerning these young Gryffindors-"  
  
"Don't tell me what I know!" spat Snape, "Malfoy made a confession-"  
  
"Of course, there are other alternatives, I could take them up to my office...or perhaps, to see the Headmaster."  
  
Snape's lips curled and they could see the look of loathing he now held for his fellow teacher.  
  
"Do what you want and be over with it! They must be punished for their crime!" he lifted himself off of the desk and began to stride powerfully across to the door.  
  
"I'm sure they will receive what they deserve," McGonagall assured him with contentment as he slammed the office door behind them.  
  
She raised her hand and Gaby's breath caught in her throat, a fire rekindled itself in the dungeon fireplace on her accord, then she turned to them. Gaby half-expected for her to shout again, scream at them, anything of the sort, but it was that her expectations would, for the second time for the day, be proven wrong.  
  
"It's funny, dealing with the people you work with," she told them, tirelessly. Gaby was appalled. "Now, what is your problem."?  
  
"Like we said," Smith took the steam," we've been wrongfully accused, Sn- Professor Snape walked into his class and saw me and Malfoy with our wands out and dragged us in here without an explanation."  
  
"Oh!" McGonagall exclaimed, "Would you care to tell me why you had your wand revealed in this particular unattended session?"  
  
"Well, Sn- Professor Snape took Malfoy's excuse about me having snuck up on him when he was trying to clean up the cauldron Gaby cracked."  
  
"And what really did happen, why were you caught in such a suspicious situation?"  
  
"Professor Snape paired me with Malfoy," Gaby said," we were doing work he left for us- well, I was doing it alone then Malfoy refused to get his foot of the Pelican Powder-"  
  
"What? - Whi- What potion were you doing?"  
  
"Bird wounds elixir, I think it was," Gaby answered. McGonagall gasped. "Highly advanced," she muttered," only learned at N.E.W.T level- and even then students find difficulty- you were OK with it?"  
  
"We finished it in half and hour...it was allright, Smith did too, with Donald..."  
  
McGonagall was staring at them with a serious expression Gaby never knew before, she felt uneasy.  
  
"Well- then- tell me what happened..."  
  
"When I asked him for it he refused, and when I tried to get it he kicked it off the table and I had to use the repair and collectable charms to retrieve it before the potion frothed over...  
  
"He told me I wasn't supposed to use magic I asked him what he was going to do about it...then he advanced on me..."  
  
"With the wand?"  
  
Gaby shook her head, "attempted to push me into the wall-"  
  
"Great gargoyles! What did you do?"  
  
"I think I dropped my wand and the vial to block then I noticed him pointing his wand at me..."  
  
"I advanced," Smith took over," with my wand and on impulse Prince covered Gaby just as Donald covered Kara behind me."  
  
McGonagall was silent for a long moment; she was now looking at Smith. "Did you attack?" she asked slowly.  
  
"No," he told her," neither- they looked like they were going to forget it then Prince suddenly turned around and tried to hit Gaby with a curse, but it hit the cauldron instead- that's how it spilled...that's when Snape came in-  
  
"Professor Snape"  
  
"Sorry, him- then he took Malfoy's bull excuse and accused us..."  
  
*** 


	5. The Accident

Seconds later it seemed, McGonagall tailed by Gaby and Smith, entered Snape's classroom, where students were struggling with the last steps of the Potion.  
  
Jade and Vanessa, like some others, gasped when they saw the teacher in a rampaging rage, the latter dropping the sample vial she was measuring out right back into the caldron, where it simmered ands smoked.  
  
The contented smiled that were impressed upon the Slytherin's faces since Snape took the Gryffindors from the classroom were wiped clear by a look of sudden respect and slight fear.  
  
McGonagall first cleared up the mess the potion had made on the floor and repaired the cauldron (the holes burned right through the surrounding benches remained a prominent sight of destruction), then she collected a sample from all the finished cauldrons, which she placed in her pocket.  
  
She faced the class and opened her mouth just as the bell rang, echoing through the dungeon walls (some students made eager shuffling noises but she gave the class such a piercing look that the culprits looked constipated). "I would like for you to tell me," she swept a shrewd gaze over the heads of the Slytherins who remained silent, "what happened here."  
  
***  
  
"Hi!" Gaby said cheerfully a she slid her legs over the bench opposite Vanessa and Jade at the Gryffindor table that afternoon. It seemed the whole table was talking about McGonagall having given them fifty apiece for a perfect potion, and most importantly, for enduring Prince and Snape.  
  
"I think Prat stole my appetite," Smith said as he sat down beside her. Gaby slid a platter towards him.  
  
"Oh, pecans!" he said as a smiled reappeared over his morbid face and he began to eat.  
  
"Don't worry about Snape, he's not worth it," Jade told him, and Gaby looked up to see if he was even listening. It turned out that he was staring at something over his shoulder.  
  
"What is it?" she asked concerned, and it looked as if she should have asked the pecan instead.  
  
Smith shook his head. "You know what?" he picked up the platter and got up, "think [what's her name can't remember] needs some of this.I'm going to wait for her there- see you in Transfiguration."  
  
"Hey, that's illegal transferring of Gryffindor property," Vanessa said, as she reached over and took two pecans before he smiled and went away with it.  
  
Gaby could feel them staring at her. She took a sudden mouthful of her steaming soup- "Ow!" it burned her tongue and she let it back out into the bowl. She blushed as she looked at them.  
  
"I was gonna ask you for some but...okay Gabrielle- I understand," Vanessa told her. They giggled.  
  
"Gabrielle!"  
  
Gaby turned to see Eddie, Smith's friend, who was out of breath standing between the two tables.  
  
"Wha-"  
  
"It's Kara! She had a splash of the Pelican Potion- they just sent her up..."  
  
Gaby didn't need telling twice, she checked her watch. Ten to one. "Tell McGonagall where I went!" she said to an astounded Vanessa and Jade, and quickly bought her legs over the bench again. Looking over at the Ravenclaw table, she saw that Smith was not there, and, thanking Eddie made it off to the stone steps in the Entrance Hall. She met with Smith at the foot of the stairs.  
  
"You-"  
  
"No time!" she said, trying to take the treads two at a time but stubbed her toe on the first attempt.  
  
"How did you-"  
  
"Eddie," she said, as they crossed the first floor to the Hospital Wing.  
  
"You didn't have to come..."  
  
"Shut up, it's as much my fault as it is yours."  
  
And with that, they neared the door to the ward in peace. Gaby opened it. Madam Pomfery looked up from a bedside. When she saw Smith enter she stood up, and they could make out the strawberry blond hair strewn across the pillow. Gaby's heart raced as she neared the bed.  
  
"I've given her a dosage to prevent it being contagious," Madam Pomfery told them, "but it's going to take a while for her to recover."  
  
"Oh my gosh..." Gaby whispered, as she looked at the bruised red marks on her face and on her hands.  
  
"She thought it was an itch," Madam Pomfery said, "then it spread when she scratched it probably...these potions, no wonder the N.E.W.T. students came back like this, even the fumes are dangerous, not for human skin contact if the potion went wrong..."  
  
Gaby looked at the marks, where it seemed that a bit of the potion had effervesced on the surface, burning across her skin leaving minor gashes in its wake. 


	6. Transfiguration

"Is there...anything we can do?" Gaby asked.  
  
"I don't think so," said Madam Pomfery, looking gravely at them. "Perhaps you could help me move her over here...where there's bed hangings, God knows I don't want people to get up and run when they come in here," she turned, "I'll prepare the remedial potions...dunno which would get her out of that state..."  
  
They heard her trailing off to the office. Gaby looked at Smith. "It's all your fault Camry."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"If you hadn't jumped up like some idiot hero and try to rescue me, Prince would've never gotten what he wanted and that cauldron would have never smashed."  
  
"Are you crazy?" Smith chocked, "nice going without the wand, what did you think I was supposed to do? Cheer for Malfoy?"  
  
"Nothing! I didn't ask for you to do anything," Gaby replied.  
  
"Well, it's a little late for that, when that goat tried shoving you into the wall he crossed the line OK?"  
  
They remained silent. Gaby didn't know whether to speak or not, but she thought it was time to put it aside.  
  
"Thanks," she mumbled. He glanced at her, "don't mention it really." Gaby smiled. "We're supposed to pick her up...or something."  
  
"Oh right."  
  
This proved to be difficult: Smith lost his grip on her bottom half just inches above the bed, and they were just halfway across the corridor toward the other bed when he stopped.  
  
"She's slipping!"  
  
"She heavy!" said Gaby. "Quickly just...argh!" Gaby, in her haste not to drop Kara, stubbed her toe on the foot of the bed, and started hopping around.  
  
"Will you stop that!" Smith seethed, buckling under her weight. Her eyes were wet with keeping in the screams as she helped Smith put her down gently on the bed, then sat down and revealed a bloodshot on her little toe. She tried avoiding Smith's eyes, but his expression was contagious and soon they were trying hard to keep in waves of laughter. Madam Pomfery returned and Gaby was relieved she had missed all the fun, the ward wasn't really a party place.  
  
But Gaby's heart saddened as she help rub alcohol over the wounds, they got redder, some even bled down onto the bed sheet... Gaby tried not to look his way when this happened, but Smith was too busy helping Madam Pomfery fix the bandages around Kara's arms, he was one of the few who knew how she felt about blood. After Kara was all set, Gaby opened the rest of the windows near her bed, in doing so; she relieved herself with the fresh breeze coming in from over the forest.  
  
"Well, I guess all we can do is wait until she gets better..." Madam Pomfery told them, smoothening Kara's bed sheets, the girl still did not stir.  
  
"How long- do you think it will take?" Gaby asked.  
  
"Well, the Potion caused a minor spillage on her skin but it was one that had gone very badly Miss Flame. I'm afraid she'll show signs of recovery in a matter days...the least, otherwise," she spared at glance at both of their anxious faces, "oh, she'll be allright or my name's isn't Poppy!" and with that she left with the medicines back to her office.  
  
"We're gonna have to bring her notes and homework up for her everyday," Gaby told Smith, "and you're still gonna have to help her with Charms, I could probably help with...not very good with Transfig-"  
  
"Gaby?"  
  
"What?" she asked looking at him from the other side of the bed.  
  
"I'll take care if it, "he said.  
  
"Her, you'll take care of her, and I doubt you know the first thing about what this girl needs," Gaby blinked at her own response.  
  
"Fine you'll help me, what are friends for?" he said getting up, and picking up his bag.  
  
'Yeah, what are friends for?' she thought, looking at Kara's lifeless face.  
  
"C'mon she'll be OK."  
  
"Yeah but- Transfiguration!" Gaby yelped. "McGonagall's gonna scream!"  
  
She told Kara goodbye (doubted she heard anything but it seemed like a good idea at the moment) and hared out of the ward and down the stairs to the Transfiguration corridor.  
  
"One forty five- one period gone!" Gaby gasped.  
  
"Maybe we should just...let our friends give us the notes and go study, that's what McGonagall's been tellin' us to do for ages I still don't listen..."  
  
"Cause you're a natural at everything...don't need to do all that stuff- now shut up I'm trying to see what she's doing, "Gaby peeked over the glass in the door. "Argh!"  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Half-transformations! She told us they'd come! She said they're not doing them over! She say's they're compulsory and well- really really hard!-"  
  
"Gaby...there's always another alternative, "said Smith calmly, "you know how McGonagall gets when you walk into her class late..."  
  
"Yeah, imagine what she'd turn us into if we didn't come at all!" Then she met his eyes. "Ohhh, nope, we're not gonna let Vanessa's insane brother tutor us again!"  
  
"He wasn't insane when he taught us during the Quidditch Finals?" Smith teased.  
  
"Yes he was! I blew up my Skittles! And that was the last pack mum sent..."  
  
"I got you another.."  
  
"Yeah," she muttered, "that was expired since two years ago..."  
  
"Blame me if I was never a Muggle," finished Smith.  
  
"Why don't we just knock and tell her why we're late?" Gaby said reasonably.  
  
"Yeah, why don't we write our wills one time and be over with O.W.L.S. forever?"  
  
"Stop being redicul-" Gaby reached her hand out to knock but the door slid open.  
  
"Good afternoon," said McGonagall, now framed in the doorway, wearing the most lurid expression that made Gaby wish she was miles away and really couldn't make it out. "I trust that your extended lunch was so good that you intend on appearing one period and seven minutes late and disrupt my class?"  
  
"We were-"  
  
"Save it Mr. Smith," McGonagall, rushed, ushering them inside. "Get to your seats."  
  
As she and Smith walked into the class there was a long "Oooohhhh," from the rest of the students. Some of them exchanged glances to the astonishment of Gabrielle in trouble again, two times in a row.  
  
When they sat down in their respective positions, Gaby was sure she heard someone shriek "What were they doing?" from behind, and she got so mad she shot a glance at Vanessa, who shrugged. "I forgot," she whispered. "How could you?" Gaby seethed.  
  
"Twenty points from Gryffindor to ensure this doesn't happen again- and that goes for ALL the classes- you two," she said to them. Gaby's jaw dropped. How could Professor McGonagall not know about Kara? Snape must have kept it a secret, and Gaby was still wondering why he had to leave his class unattended and miss luring around and breathing down all the Gryffindor's backs while they froze over the cauldrons.  
  
"You are going to attempt to change parts of your own bodies into any animal feature you so desire," McGonagall instructed briskly. "I have given you the theory, may God help you with the spell...and to give you an idea, I have allowed you to select your pets...to visualize the so-called features."  
  
Gaby's mind gave a jolt; she forgot to bring Midnight, her owl.  
  
"I trust that I could leave you for a few seconds and by the time I come back with the records, you will be finished with this simple task..." and McGonagall too left the classroom.  
  
Gaby tried reading Jade's notes. But her friend kindly instructed her on the so-called simple series of tasks she was to follow. "Well, it's the least I can do after McGonagall did..." she explained when Gaby asked why she was so concerned.  
  
"I still don't have a pet..." And, as if attracted by her necessity, a flurry of wings appeared at the window, and  
  
Tower soared into the class, white as snow, and perched atop the desk in front of Gaby and Smith.  
  
"I swear, he seems to take to you more than me," Smith remarked.  
  
"Must you have something to say to everything?" Gaby said, but he already knew she didn't know what she was doing.  
  
"Relax before you blow up the entire school," he told her, which was enough to make her forget to worry.  
  
She followed the steps carefully, repeatedly, gaining no results; while Smith successively turned his nose into an owl's beak, changed his eyes to take over half his face, and sprouted a tail which tripped Gaby when she wasn't looking, much to the amusement of the majority of the class. "Show off, "he muttered as he helped her up.  
  
"Can't stop a man from showing the world what's he's got."  
  
"Oye, what next," Gaby rolled her eyes.  
  
"Your turn top shotter," he challenged, folding his arms and trying and failing to look formidable, the grin giving him away. Jade and Vanessa, who were also successful in performing similar transformations after Smith (Jade temporarily sported dog's ears and Vanessa had just got rid of her talons) turned to watch, but Gaby forgot them in peaceful concentration. Her eyes were closed and she was remembering Tower when he retrieved her wand in her third year in the Invasion. And she felt light all of a sudden.  
  
Opening her eyes, she found that Smith looked completely scared, and thought for a second that her transformation had gone wrong. 


	7. Crimson Regrets

She felt different altogether and one glance told her why. From the tails of her eyes she noticed something angel white furling from the sides of her shoulders...they were moving.  
  
"Ohhh..." It seemed that part of her back and shoulders had been hinged into the white wings of an owl, in proportion and her friends just stared at her in awe.  
  
They moved easily, and she was just getting used to them when the door opened and McGonagall entered. She didn't look in the least bit surprised, however one of her think eyebrows rose when she saw the transformations. As a matter of fact, the whole class did well on that assignment, but Gaby and Smith got total, accompanied by Vanessa and Jade of course.  
  
But it seemed that her transformation had stirred a queer sort of silence as they left the class for the grounds to care of Magical Creatures. Jade and Vanessa decided to take a restroom break before they left, but Gaby was sure she saw then exchange excited looks when they thought she wasn't looking, and Gaby and Smith went off alone. Any moment now, they would encounter the Slytherins coming from the other side of the castle where they took Astronomy.  
  
"How did you...well you know?" Smith started.  
  
"How did I do that?" Gaby finished, "I really don't know, it seemed like all I thought about was my friends, and how you people always come to me when I need help for something."  
  
"Oh, but how could that substitute for wings?"  
  
"It didn't, McGonagall told us to concentrate on a feature right? And it just so happened that Tower appeared and saved my neck...But honestly, if it wasn't for you guys, I would never have made it this far, I don't even think I'd be alive, I owe you a lot especially."  
  
"Aw, not really, believeing you got killed by centaurs when I was twelve stopped my from doing anything stupid anymore, so we're even."  
  
Gaby actually laughed, but they stopped short when they saw the massive outline of Hagrid emerging from his hut, carrying what looked like fifty pounds of caracas over his shoulder.  
  
"Hello there Gaby...Smith," he greeted them.  
  
"Hagrid, we're not going to feed that to anything are we?" Gaby asked.  
  
"Oh no, well... yeah- you'll see," he ushered the rest of the class near them, some looked skeptical that the flesh might actually be alive.  
  
Gaby noticed that Prince was absent, which boosted her spirits about having a great class, but when Hagrid turned to face the Forest, she gasped.  
  
"Don' worry, if anything goes wrong, Madam Pomfery'll put yer back together again..." and he led them off to the dark side. Gaby walked with Smith, following in Hagrid's wake for about twenty minutes, through thick undergrowth away from the paths. They encountered nothing suspicious except for the usual bizarre animal cries from a distance.  
  
Hagrid stopped in a small clearing, and the students crowded around him, though there was much space to go around. He dropped the caracas on the forest floor, and waited. "Oh, this lesson's all about' Theastrels [doubted I spelled that right] On the pretext of inquiring what in the world those were, Gaby noticed Smith look uneasy, which was a first for a long time.  
  
The forest became silent, and then there were new sounds around them. Soft hoof beats from amoung the trees. The students turned in every direction to meet the Theastrels but they were not showing up. They could hear them, their breathing, hear them approaching nearer, attracted by the meat. The Gaby heard something chomp beside her.  
  
"Argh!"  
  
Part of the meat had been chewed off, and blood dripped from something invisible just above it.  
  
"Oh...I can't see it but I know something's there..." she said.  
  
"Those are the Theastrels," Hagrid instructed the bewildered class, as they observed the meat disappearing before their eyes into complete nothingness. "They're magical creatures, cross between horses and reptiles really...but they're brutes."  
  
"How do you know?" a girl asked Hagrid.  
  
"Because I can see them," he told her. "I can see them because I saw death, and I'm sure some of some if you can make them out too..."  
  
Gaby looked at Smith; he was transfixed, staring at a point fixed above the ground. His eyes liquefied and he looked somewhat scared and angry. "You can see them Camry?" she asked quietly, he shook out of his gaze.  
  
"Yeah," his voice broke, "I can..."  
  
"Is it because of me? It can't be because I didn't die."  
  
"No..." he blinked," you didn't," he was backing away from the creature from the centre of the clearing, in the cool shade of the coniferous trees around them, though still staring.  
  
He sat down, at the base of a tree and brought his knees up before him, staring over them. Gaby sat with him, watching at the other students, pet space and shriek when they seemed to have felt something. "I felt its teeth, I felt its teeth!" gasped, Eddie excitedly.  
  
"Want to talk about it?" she asked Smith, since he was slipping into an unusual silent mode, and she was right, he did have something to say about everything. But he shook his head. Gaby didn't recall him ever speaking about his parents for a while. Once they touched the subject a year ago, and it wasn't pretty.  
  
"Not talking about it doesn't make the pain go away," Gaby told him. He continued to stare and shook his head again but this time, made a terse remark.  
  
"That's why I was like that when I saw you almost killed, it was the second time...the second time, and I didn't want to lose someone again-" he trailed off. Gaby couldn't understand how he felt, but in his position it would mean the world to her, she rested her hand on his shoulder and watched on with him, until Hagrid was ready to leave, and they heard the creatures take flight back into the confines of the forest.  
  
Gaby had never seen someone so sad before, so miserable it was beyond tears. They went back to the castle for dinner together. Gaby shook her head at Jade and Vanessa, saw their eyes shining and was sure Vanessa wanted to tell her about how it was like feeding the Theastrels. But they held off when they saw his state.  
  
It seemed like nothing would bring him back to his former self- nothing except... 


	8. Camry Smith

"Where are you going?" he asked her as Gaby, got up from the table.  
  
"Oye, we got Quidditch practice," Vanessa told him, "but Gabrielle, it's not in another forty-five minutes!"  
  
"Kara!" she called back, disappearing from the Great Hall.  
  
She heard running foot steps and saw Smith catching up to her. "I doubt...she'll even...be awake," he told her, trying to catch his breath, and groaned as she raced up the stairs.  
  
Gaby hated when he was right. It was always the negativity. Kara's scars and burns hadn't healed much in a matter of hours...  
  
"Yeah, and if she was awake, you were gonna torment her with work," Smith breathed at her.  
  
"Shut up will you? I just came to see if she's any better."  
  
"Happy?" he seethed.  
  
"Of course not! They're no signs of improvement you idiot." Madam Pomfery sliced the argument and shooed them out of the room. (Oh! Go get some more injuries for me to take care of!).  
  
They climbed the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower.  
  
"Uhh...." Gaby said to the fat Lady.  
  
"Dandelions!" Smith told her, and she swung forward to admit them. "What would you do without me?"  
  
"I'd be afraid of licorice for the rest of my life," Gaby told him. They parted at the stairs to the dormitories to retrieve their brooms. Smith had a White Lightning as oppose to Gaby's Firebolt, both were extremely fast racing brooms, however Gaby had the edge on distance while Smith relied mainly on fast swerves for Keeping.  
  
The stadium was shrouded in misty twilight by the time they got here. Gaby headed for the changing rooms and pulled out the trunk from under the spare robes.  
  
"You know you're not supposed to open that," Smith told her.  
  
"That's supposed to be my line," she told him smiling, and produced a key from her own pocket.  
  
'How did you-?"  
  
"Ron, he left it in my possession in the first year, figured you needed as much help as you can get..."  
  
"Get out!" he chuckled. They key clicked in the lock and the trunk opened to reveal the red Quaffle, and two quivering Bludgers.  
  
"Funny, why is this in the Gryffindor Changing Rooms?"  
  
"Because Godric founded Quidditch to Hogwarts."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"No, they just trust us more. They're gonna use it when they come anyway."  
  
"You mean we're not gonna wait for them?"  
  
***  
  
"LAZY, CAMRY!" Gaby yelled at him, right in front of the Gryffindor goalposts. He frowned.  
  
"Honestly, you should put Tower to defend..." She tossed him another Quaffle, which he caught- and dropped. Gaby retrieved it, aimed for the middle post, then threw it squarely for the right, while he frowned at her, and refused to move, arms folded hovering on his broomstick.  
  
"You're not gonna move?" Gaby said to him, tossing the Quaffle threateningly in her hands.  
  
"I'm not gonna move."  
  
"Sure?"  
  
"Hell, yeah, and you're not gonna make me."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah, because you're not going to throw that."  
  
"Oh, is that so?-"  
  
"OYE BONEHEADS!"  
  
They both looked down just as Gaby released the Quaffle, which collided with the side of Smith's head.  
  
"Oh! My Gosh...I am so sorry," she said, rushing to see if he was OK.  
  
"Oye... they're hard..."Smith said, baffled.  
  
Gaby looked down to see Vanessa looking up at them as they descended.  
  
"Hey, you two actually looked cute up there," she grinned.  
  
"Hey!" Gaby retorted.  
  
"Is he any better?" Jade asked her.  
  
"Nope," she smiled at both Vanessa and Jade, who tossed their brooms in their right hands.  
  
"Gabs, you fill in for Carrie..." Jade said, looking malicious.  
  
"Ohhh....mama," Smith stepped back. It was fun trying to get past him, but it seemed that with the total three Chasers, he was able to anticipate more and counter-attack, though they still called him lazy on account of his slow swerves, he was spurred onto greater defense. Gaby really did like playing on Vanessa and Jade's terms. She could not chase as well as they but she kept up, besides, someone once told her that Seeking was a combination of everything, with just the right type of dash to it. 


	9. Interrogation

Later the rest of the team showed up and everyone seemed to play their best from the boosted spirits of the four friends. But by the end of the practice session, which ended to everyone's delight miraculously, Gaby couldn't help but feel that he was holding back. She remained with him to clean up in the Changing Rooms while Vanessa and Jade talked outside.  
  
"Thanks for helping," he said glumly.  
  
"You don't need to thank me, what are friends for?" she told him. He sighed.  
  
"Someone used to tell me that," he murmured. "But he broke his promise...he's not here anymore."  
  
"It's not his fault," Gaby said, wondering if this was his dad. He looked at her. "If you promised your son you would always be there for him, no matter what, and then suddenly you didn't show up because you broke you promise about not going somewhere..."  
  
"Did you see it?" Gaby approached him.  
  
"Oh, I saw it allright, hated both of them ever since- look I gotta go do Prat's homework," and he left the Changing Rooms without another word. Gaby was confused. If Quidditch and concern didn't help, what would? She decided to give him time, which didn't make sense to her at the moment, but then again Camry always bounced back. It was his trait, nothing seemed to affect him much. And nape forgot to give them homework.  
  
She met Vanessa and Jade at the exit.  
  
"What's up with Smith?" Jade asked.  
  
"Some...personal problems..."  
  
"Aw well, he'll get over Thestrals, I did and I nearly got my hand bitten off..." Vanessa shrugged, as they went back to the castle. Its yellow windows beautifully outlining the aesthetics of the ancient architecture.  
  
"It's not that...he's sees them."  
  
Vanessa and Jade stopped. "What do they look like?" Vanessa input.  
  
"Never did say, oh, he's a bit touchy now so mind..."  
  
***  
  
When they got to the Common Room, Gaby did not see Smith. It was Friday and they work load made up for the weekend. But it seemed that the rest of the students wanted an early night in, and soon Vanessa, Jade and Gaby were the only ones left near the fire.  
  
Gaby had just finished her report on Hairy Ghouls of the sixteenth century for History of Magic, and was about to clear her desk to finish the Divination Chart when Vanessa stopped her.  
  
"Take a break will you Shortie?"  
  
"Wha-"  
  
"We need to ask you something," Jade intercepted.  
  
"If it's about Camry I'm not saying anything."  
  
"It's not about your Camry- wait it is..."  
  
Gaby tried to get up but Vanessa pushed her back down into the chair by her shoulders.  
  
"I told you, it's personal...now I don't even know that much-" she attempted an escape again but Vanessa's grip was too strong.  
  
"Jade...vial" she said. "Now you're going to have to listen to us."  
  
"You never listen to me!"  
  
"We listen to you all the time..."  
  
"No you- Argh!"  
  
Gaby just recognized the clear potion inside the vial which Jade held in her hands.  
  
"Now I'm sorry it has to come down to this- but it's Veritaserum, and you know we're that crazy."  
  
Gaby chocked. "You wouldn't"  
  
"Oh, try me"  
  
"Ok..." Gaby was still staring at the liquid.  
  
"Jade Shield, I think she's willing to talk."  
  
Jade smiled and set the bottle down on the side table.  
  
"Do you like Camry?"  
  
"Wha-?"  
  
"Answer- yes or no..."  
  
Gaby sighed, and stared at them defiantly. 


	10. THE FIGHT

"No. I do not. I love him like a brother- Now can I g- OW!"  
  
"Nice try Precious," Vanessa had forced down Gaby's attempt to escape again. "But you're not gonna get rid or us that easy..."  
  
"Oh...cause I haven't brushed my teeth after tuna and spinach yet-"  
  
Vanessa and Jade jumped back, looking repulsive. Gabrielle sprung for it- Jade yelped and Vanessa slipped on her robes. But Gaby had only touched the knob of the staircase to the girls' dormitory when she was flung back into the armchair. They intended for her to stay there-  
  
"Mobil Leviticus!" Vanessa garbled and rope like chords entwined around Gaby's wrists- strapping them to the arm of the chair. They banned her skin when she pulled at them.  
  
Vanessa blew the tip of her wand and Gaby leered at her. "Well done..."  
  
"Thank you, you know I'm wonderful," she smirked.  
  
"Pat yourself on the back."  
  
"Pity how someone can escape death with an arrow right through her shoulder and not escape her best friends," Jade said, sitting down opposite.  
  
"Don't flatter yourselves." Gaby sighed, blowing a strand of hair from her face. She waited.  
  
"Ok, I repeat... Do- you- like- Camry- Smith?"  
  
"No I do not- Next," she answered monotonously.  
  
"We know you're not telling the truth," Vanessa piped.  
  
"You're the one with the truth potion- if it is Veritaserum."  
  
"Hey, only one way to find out and you'll be telling us all the names of your stuffed animals," Jade threatened.  
  
"Next- question please."  
  
"Do you know that Smith likes you?"  
  
"What!" Gaby's head rose from the top of the armchair where she was resting it- to look at them.  
  
"He does- didn't you know?" Vanessa continued.  
  
"You can't be sure," Gaby said, doubting it seriously.  
  
"Told us."  
  
"You're lying."  
  
Vanessa tut-tutted. "Little Shortstuffs, would I lie to you?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Ok! Let's not get personal," Jade interjected.  
  
"Well then, why are you tying to invade?" Gaby's tone rose.  
  
"So it does bother you?"  
  
"Shut up V," she turned to Gaby, "we're doing this because we're trying to help!"  
  
It was because Jade had said it that made Gaby think twice; maybe she was being too evasive. And Gaby looked from her magical cuffs to their faces alternatively.  
  
"Oh- well it was the only alternative next to the Veritaserum!"  
  
Gaby tried a different route. She relaxed. "Ok, help away."  
  
"Well he told us actually, he let slip, that's how we know he was telling the truth," Jade said.  
  
Gaby resisted the urge to ask them why they didn't try threatening them with their veritaserum, to stay right on track.  
  
"He said he doesn't really like that Kara girl."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yeah, and he'd give it all up because of you."  
  
"Really? Frankly I don't think he'll break her heart because of me," she said quickly.  
  
"Oh, you'd be surprised Miss Flame," Vanessa said dramatically," I've seen you do some pretty amazing things with boys."  
  
Gaby laughed. "Camry's my friend."  
  
"But you care about him a little more that that, do you?" Jade said.  
  
"No."  
  
"You don't like him at all?"  
  
"No."  
  
"You don't have anything against him dating Kara?"  
  
"Why should I?" she replied impartially.  
  
"Doesn't it make you feel in the least bit bad?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Why are you rushing this?!" Vanessa started.  
  
"Because I need to- GO!" Gaby folded her legs and Jade and Vanessa knew very well the circumstances under which she did that.  
  
"But this will only take a minute!" Vanessa mused.  
  
"No! I gotta go now!" The stared at her and she slid down in her armchair- and fingered into the pocket of her robes, but just as she closed her hand around her wand, Vanessa released her and she fell sprawled to the floor.  
  
An instant later they chased her all the way to the girls' bathroom and waited outside the only exit. Gaby, determined to be difficult, prologues the use of a cubicle [which worked to an annoying advantage to the other occupants of her home actually] and her toothbrush, but they were more persistent than she ever imagined. She was just about washing her face and hands for the twelfth time when she saw Smith wave to the girls as he passed the exit, in the mirror. She ran to the door but froze just inside the doorway- mouth half open to call him but he looked over his shoulder and luckily saw her.  
  
Vanessa and Jade were in the middle of a heated conversation- backs turned to the exit. She made the expression of slicing her neck with her hand and he winked at her and she hid behind the exit. "Oh, Vanessa I almost forgot, Denny's waiting for you downstairs-"  
  
The girls shrieked and ran down the stairs and Gaby emerged ache flung her arms around Smith thanking him repeatedly.  
  
"What, were they torturing you?" he asked, chuckling.  
  
"Worse," Gaby said, releasing him. "Interrogation."  
  
Smith chuckled more loudly.  
  
"The fun never ends with you three doesn't it?"  
  
Gaby shook her head. "I can't believe you just did that! She's gonna get so steamed- But...how long would it take them to reach downstairs and find you're lying?"  
  
He searched the ceiling, "for Vanessa, I'd say...five minutes."  
  
Gaby rose an eyebrow. He seized her hand, "C'mon I know a place where they'll never think of looking. He took her through an armored passageway and up some narrow stairs without railings; she did not realize that her grip on him was tighter than usual until they were on level ground again in an enclosed balcony.  
  
"Filch'll find us though."  
  
"Oh, he doesn't come up here, he avoids everything with this air." Smith assured her.  
  
They reached a matted tapestry, and in the half-gloom Gaby could make out an elaborate gold crown a lady of royalty. Smith touched the jewel of her crown and the matted tapestry that made her portrait vanished away into an old door. They emerged into an Atlantean decorative balcony, perched magnificently on the Ravenclaw Tower, overlooking a sweeping view of the grounds and lake under a breathtaking atmosphere of the star speckled sky. It seemed just as if they opened up to the Heavens.  
  
Gaby stepped forward, the chill night breeze blowing her hair back off her shoulders.  
  
"How did you know about this?" she asked him as he leaned on the ledge.  
  
"Let's just say I stumbled upon it in the era of my misery," he smiled and Gaby laughed. "Like it?"  
  
"It brilliant! Hagrid's hut looks like a cake from here!...Only thing it reminds me of Astronomy," she said, wincing and turning away from the stars.  
  
"Funny," Smith commented," every girls in the world probably likes stars and they give you a headache.  
  
"Well, I'm from the underground and dotted lights make me sick." He laughed and she sat on the opposite ledge.  
  
"Well, it's my secret hiding place."  
  
"Not a secret anymore," she said to him, watching the still black silhouettes of the trees in the Forest.  
  
"You're the first person to know about me since I had to help you escape from you fiendish friends."  
  
"Cool," Gaby smiled.  
  
"So think of it as out place- that is if you're afraid of heights like I am,"  
  
"Oh great, we can overcome our fears together- just don't push me over the ledge without a broomstick- I don't think I can morph into Tower that fast."  
  
"I won't, but I'd sure like to see you try."  
  
"What were you doing in the Charms corridor all by your lonesome?"  
  
"Lurking."  
  
"Thanks for this," she told him.  
  
"Don't mention- really. I don't know how stable this thing is."  
  
They started talking about the other's embarrassing moments, trading likewise. Like the time when Vanessa decided to perform the first magical haircut on herself and instead of straight bangs, received half a bald head- and when she and jade had to pull her back from walking into the boys bathroom by mistake (I was really drowsy! she said when Smith started laughing his head off). He told her about Eddie's past experiences with flying (He's so persistent but he's very good at leaving indentations in Hogwarts external walls).  
  
It felt great to be engrossed in something other that bookwork- and this was laughter. but there came a time when Smith cast his stare downwards, looking thoughtful and Gaby remembered how he left on the Quidditch pitch, and really felt like she was invading privacy now but thought for the better. She went over and sat next to him.  
  
"Sorry I left you guys out there like that earlier."  
  
"You came back though, didn't you?" Gaby told him. She waited, admiring the bluish greenish tile of the balcony in the fading light of the torches inside.  
  
"My parents...it just happened so fast I swore I'd never be happy again..."  
  
"Not because they die denies your right to live," Gaby said softly. He didn't speak for a while,  
  
"I come up here to forget things," he sighed.  
  
"No one close to me has ever died before," Gaby said cautiously," but it almost happened," she said, looking right at him, "I'll never forget that feeling of losing someone right before my eyes, and if I saw my parents die I'd never forget that too..."  
  
He looked down, and swung his feet a little to deflect questions, but Gaby knew what was going on.  
  
"Lucky thing I emptied my bladder first."  
  
He sniggered, "How can I not be happy when you're here?"  
  
"You're happy all the time."  
  
He sighed and when Gaby told him that his parents were very good for him to turn out the way he did, he smiled at her sadly, and some of the colour returned to his eyes. "No wonder I like talking to you, you're complementary."  
  
"Look, Leo's high tonight."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Leo, the lion- your constellation."  
  
He smiled when he spotted it in the velvet black canopy. "And there's Gemini on the other side of it," he said, pointing it out to her.  
  
Gaby squinted up at the two of them, like a trademark in the sky. "Kinda looks like they're one doesn't it?" He agreed. 


	11. Caught

And after Gaby said that Vanessa and Jade wouldn't be this patient, and she was prone to the slightest frostbite, they left the balcony down the narrow staircase, Smith holding her hand behind him.  
  
"You know," he said," your hair isn't that bad- I dunno why you say so half the time."  
  
"You try combing it out once, I'll bend every comb you got."  
  
"Grizzly Bears," they said to the fat Lady. "Oh, did you see Missis Shield and Silver come in here?" Gaby asked her before she swung open. "Yes, w good while ago, but I believe the long one said she was going to bed and the long plaited one agreed with her out of frustration."  
  
"Thanks!"  
  
"Anything for you dear," she yawned. And Gaby must have imagined a curious spark in her pastel eyes despite her sleepiness, when she looked at them. The Common Room was deserted.  
  
Gaby hugged him goodnight at the foot of the stairs and then they went their separate ways... The door to her dorm creaked as she slipped inside. It was dark as she crossed the room to her four-poster, half expecting accusing bright lights to flick on and to hear Vanessa's shrill 'Hold it right there Shortstuffs' but it didn't happen and when she drew the hangings around her bed a loud snore from her direction assured her safely until morn. She lay awake enough to feel very grateful for her best friends and the quality of their friendship, even if they went to frankly 'unusual' measures. They had been there for her and she wouldn't ever remove herself from their side. And she dreamt freely that night even after she thought of how much sleepless nights Smith suffered through, even when she was there partnering him to blow up experiments.  
  
It was Saturday morning and Gaby tumbled down the stairs in the Entrance hall, but not for breakfast. She had to find Smith. There he was sitting at the far end of the Gryffindor table- she could see his quill quivering over the tabletop as he petted Tower. She almost ran to him, and dropped all her books down in the space beside him. He looked up.  
  
"I-I've got a Potions Test on Goblin Rebellions today and- I don't know what I'm doing!" she breathed, her voice breaking but not stopping to think about the nonsense she was spilling," the exams are only months away and I think I'm forgetting everything I learned from five- I don't know what the last dragon outrage was!" she said, flinging her hands up into the air and pacing the floor. "I tried doing Banishing Charm this morning and Teddy won't come to me! I didn't learn half the dates in Transfiguration! I'm sprouting scales instead of feathers for Charms- I feel like I could break licorice! And I dreamt about a Theastral!" Smith was still looking at her- she fixed her gaze on the floor, now thoroughly confused.  
  
"Good morning to you too."  
  
"Sorry," she said softly, brushing her un-brushed hair from her face.  
  
"Have a seat," he said calmly.  
  
She pulled out a chair beside him and sat down, breathing sharply, feeling nauseated at the mound of work in front of her. She wavered slightly and he held her shoulders, "Gaby look at me." She looked up. "Breathe." She sneezed. "Sorry again." "No harm done."  
  
"Now, sleep well?"  
  
"Think so, but I jumped out if it this morning thinking it was Monday...or is it still Friday?" she felt highly embarrassed about letting go on him but he was just calm like he always was, and when Gaby inquired about it he merely shrugged. "You probably noticed it was a guy thing by now, but we do get freaked out sometimes."  
  
She sniffled.  
  
"Why don't you... paint your nailed like some other girls do?"  
  
"Cuz I eat them when I lose my head!"  
  
"Well- technically- if you lost your head you won't be able to eat-"  
  
She punched him and he laughed. "You're enjoying this aren't you?"  
  
"No, but I know you're just afraid and there's nothing to be afraid of-"  
  
"But -"  
  
He held up a hand to silence her, "I've seem you brave things I would never have dared Flame, funny finals freak you out."  
  
"It'd rather rodeo a dragon than go through this," she muttered.  
  
"Oh, careful, that may not be many people's first choice. I'll help you come on. We've done this before and we can crack this again- just like we do every year. Hm?"  
  
Gaby nodded, eyes still full of fear. Tower stared at her- his amber eyes getting larger than it already was- he hooted as if in concern and Gaby giggled.  
  
"There, it's gonna be OK, they're just exams."  
  
"Life defining exams," Gaby added.  
  
"Hate to spoil the moment."  
  
Both Gaby and Smith jumped and turned around.  
  
"Sorry sis, but I'm due for allowance."  
  
"You spend more than me Sam!" Gaby said to her round-eyed eleven ear old sister.  
  
"But I'm due!" she said, poking Gaby in the ribs.  
  
"OK! But I'm going to have to receive Mum's letter first before I give you anything- She'll tell me."  
  
Sam scowled.  
  
"Oh- Gosh I forgot to post Uncle Miser," Smith said. He leapt out of his chair but stopped suddenly, turning back to Gaby.  
  
"Stop worrying, be right back," he said bending to hug her. "I love you." The he lofted Tower from the table and ran from the Great Hall but it was Sam who made Gaby realize what he had just said.  
  
"I love you too sis," she mocked dramatically. Gaby threw a book through her hysterical giggles, just as Vanessa and Jade came pelting into the Hall (Oh no...)  
  
"GABY!" They had their brooms with them. "Earl told us to mark the field!"  
  
"What- OH my gosh I completely forgot."  
  
"Quidditch Practice, the second season?"  
  
"We've gotta get there before the Slytherins!" Vanessa pressed."  
  
"Oh!" Gaby slapped her forehead. "I didn't tell Camry!"  
  
"No time!" Vanessa said, grabbing her arm painfully.  
  
"What about my broom?"  
  
"Forget it!" gasped Jade.  
  
"Came I come?"  
  
"NO!" they turned around to tell Sam. Gaby fretted. "Jus- jus take those things upstairs and tag Camry OK? Go now!" she called back to her.  
  
They ran out onto the grounds in the pouring rain. There were no Slytherins in sight. Vanessa pelted in ahead of them but stopped at the entrance to the stadium.  
  
"Come ON!" she yelled at them.  
  
They had already reached center-field soaked in their scarlet Quidditch robes when they were confronted with the full Slytherin team line-up. Prince stepped forward, smirking. "Seems to me like you forgot your lame team Flame."  
  
"We came here first!" Gaby said, stepping forward. "That means we play here....today."  
  
Prince fumed. "Get off the field! You do not have a full team Flame-"  
  
"You're just afraid we whoop you in the finals."  
  
"YOU DON'T KNOW BALLS ABOUT QUIDDITCH MUDBLOOD! So why don't you just get back to that sewer you came from."  
  
"That's IT," Jade fussed beside her. She ripped open her collar, threw aside her tie and broomstick and did something she had never done before- and which was highly unlike her - She charged at Malfoy- wrenching his collar and pushed him back and he fell into a puddle of mud. He was too surprised to react and she lunged at him again. "Stop!"  
  
The heavy downpour blurred everything. The Slytherins on-que burst in on them while Jade scratched away at Malfoy and Gaby was sure she heard and unfamiliar voice yelp when she flung her elbows back and it collided with iron flesh. Sparks flew like mad all around them.  
  
They brought their wands to the pitch!  
  
Gaby couldn't find Vanessa through the tangled mass of burly figures, though she heard her scream in fear. Someone's forearms bolted across Gaby's middle- pinning her arms inward and raising her off the ground. She yelled out (not expecting it would help) but the effect made the captor drop her so suddenly it was as if he was hit from behind by a-  
  
"CAMRY!"  
  
Gaby yelled- recognising his outline- Marc with him- just before she got rammed by another Slytherin much like the way the footballers charge in the games. The force knocked out her breath as she hit the ground and groaned, unable to get up as the fight went on. She saw feet splashing around her, and her insides felt like they were being Bar-B-Qued. She underestimated physical strength and that was always her biggest falter- but it didn't mean she was totally powerless... The mad battle of fist and wand intensified. They were four against seven and Gaby still could not find Vanessa (she heard Prince yell continuously and figured the Kid was doing quite all right).  
  
And then the rest of the Gryffindor team rained on them like a pack of wolves- sought out the attackers and administered justice in the form of jaw-snappers, left hooks, arm wrings and fierce upper-cuts. Gaby was surprised, she never really realized how born witches and wizards were able to learn all this.  
  
Gaby heard Vanessa scream and slipped through the outstretched arms of another captor but, as if expecting her arrival, knuckles like iron collided with her stomach and she was driven to the ground- gasping ungainly... She did not like the sickening sound of colliding forces all around her but her wand was out and she was up again- stunning anything green, managing to make one of them dance- until it was snatched away in the wet confusion. She saw Jade rise high above the crowd- wretched off by a Slytherin- she was flinging water from her hair and struggling in defiance but Gaby kicked up before he could slam her down and the captor tuned to high-pitched opera.  
  
Gaby and Jade found Vanessa at the foot of the fight- she was dodging the feet before she reared up and smashed the jaw of a green-clad figure with the heel of her hand (Sorry!).  
  
How many people of the sixteen were caught in headlocks and still struggling, feet planted in the ground - yelling by the time the whistle shrilled though the stadium- this time not to end or begin a game- but to cease Muggle duelling in a massive group? Most people froze- some fell in exhaustion- they heard splashing footsteps...  
  
Jade, who was on the verge of being thrown again, was landed on the back of a fallen Gryffndor. Gaby who was frozen in her arched position, arms folded behind her in the masoning grip of a burly Slytherin while the sole of her shoe struck out to the chest of the other Slytherin who was advancing to hit her. And Vanessa, locked in tight gear with Merissa's talon-like hails, refused to stop trying to yank a handful of purple hair out of the opponent's head. 


End file.
